In recent years, mounting semiconductor integrated circuit devices on a substrate with high density has been required since portable electronic devices have been miniaturized, and in response to this, layering a number of semiconductor chips three-dimensionally has been attempted.
In such a three-dimensionally mounted semiconductor integrated circuit device, the semiconductor chips are generally connected through microbumps in order to exchange signals between the semiconductor chips. In the case where three or more semiconductor chips are layered on top of each other, however, it is necessary to create through vias that penetrate through the semiconductor chip(s) in the middle. In order to create such through vias that penetrate through semiconductor chip(s), a complex manufacturing process is necessary, and at the same time high precision with the process is required.
Electrical connection between semiconductor chips through capacitive coupling has also been proposed as another method. In accordance with this method, though no problem arises in the case where there are only two semiconductor chips, the efficiency in transmitting signals dramatically lowers in the case where there are three or more semiconductor chips. In order to compensate for this, it is necessary to increase the output, and therefore such a problem arises that the power consumption increases.
Communication between semiconductor chips through antennas mounted on the chips has been proposed as still another method. In accordance with this method as well, however, such a problem arises that the transmission efficiency lowers when there are three or more semiconductor chips.
Thus, the present inventors have proposed communication using a magnetic field due to inductive coupling between the LSI (integrated circuit device) chips layered on top of each other and mounted on a substrate via coils formed of wires on the chips (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 to 7 and Non-Patent Documents 1 to 8).
For example, the present inventors have proposed a formation of rectangular patterns for a coil in layers using a metal wire such that two pairs of patterns almost overlap when projected in the middle and lower layers as well as in the upper and lower layers so that the upper and lower rectangular patterns are alternately connected through vias to form one coil (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 2).
In addition, the present inventors have examined cross talking in magnetic field communication using the above described coil in terms of a signal inputted not only to the reception side coil that faces the transmission side coil, but also to a reception side coil adjacent to this reception side coil. As a result of this examination, the inventors had found that the distance between adjacent coils could be set to a predetermined value so that the value gained by integrating the magnetic flux density within the reception coil could be made 0, that is to say cross talking could be prevented (see, for example, Patent Document 4).
Furthermore, the present inventors have examined the effects of the peripheral wires on the efficiency in transmitting signals in the case where the peripheral wires are provided between a pair of coils facing each other as described above (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 8). As a result of this examination, it had been confirmed that the peripheral wires that run in one direction, such as conventional bus lines, had almost no effect on the transmission efficiency.